Wisor, Scott. "Against Shallow Ponds: an Argument against Singer's Approach to Global Poverty". Journal of Global Ethics, Vol.7, No.1 (2011): 19-32.

Wisor, Scott. "Against Shallow Ponds: an Argument against Singer's Approach to Global Poverty". Journal of Global Ethics, Vol.7, No.1 (2011): 19-32.

• In presenting a moral argument for helping to allieviate extreme poverty, Peter Singer utilizes the example of a man saving a drowning child from a shallow pond. The allegory goes that since something very bad can be accomplished with little cost to one's self, it is immoral to not act (20).
• The allegory of the drowning child is not compatible with the realities of foreign aid because it implies only a single agent, the man watching the child. In reality, the global poor are capable actors, constantly attempting to improve their lot in life and making smart financial decisions. Using this allegory ignores the agency of the global poor (21).
• The allegory also fails because it does not provide context for the drowning. Poverty, and especially famine, always have unique proximate causes which require addressing. The drowning child allegory does not provide for these different contexts of poverty (21-22).
• There are no institutions in the allegory, although institutional arrangements nationally and internationally are responsible for the scope of global poverty and responses to it. Moreover, there are usually active attempts to reform institutions which may potentially be undermined by foreign aid (22-23).
• The real world is extremely complex, and foreign aid is also a complex and difficult process. The shallow pond allegory addresses none of this complexity, and therefore does not apply well to the real world (23).
• The kind of approaches to global poverty inspired by the shallow pond allegory are harmful because they are oversimplified and reductionist. It advocates towards only the easiest varifiable options, against other programs like human rights (24). It encourages a Western 'savior' complex which ignores the agency of the developing world and the role of the wealthy West in causing that extreme poverty (24-25). It implies that very little knowledge or expertise is required to help the poor, while in reality this is a specialist job (25-27). It sidelines political solutions to poverty and depoliticizes the issue (27). The actual distribution of resources, even among different charities, is not addressed nor is the problem of scarce resources split between deserving populations (27-28).
• Considering all of these negative responses, the author recommends that the shallow pond allegory be abandoned, and a new line of reason in defense of allieviating global poverty be created without all of these negative implications (28).